Budget woes may threaten voter guide.

Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

SALEM - The Oregon Voters' Pamphlet may not live to see 100.

The government-produced guide to candidates and ballot measures has made it to print for every statewide election since 1904, coming out even when Oregon and the rest of the country were caught up in two world wars and the Great Depression.

But the Legislature and Secretary of State Bill Bradbury haven't agreed on a way to fund it for the 2004 general and primary elections.

And despite Bradbury's request for $1.2 million to publish the booklets for those two election cycles next year, a key lawmaker said he's pushing for the request to be rejected when the Legislative Emergency Board convenes next month.

Rep. Dan Doyle, a Salem Republican, said he is encouraging fellow GOP members of the Emergency Board - which makes spending decisions between sessions - to reject Bradbury's request, instead considering it when the House-Senate panel next meets in January.

He said the cost seemed too high, especially at a time when it's uncertain whether a petition drive will succeed in forcing a Feb. 3 referendum vote to eliminate $800 million in taxes from the 2003-05 budget.

"Do we want to risk even sending $1.2 million off to the Voters' Pamphlet when we will need to restore public safety and human services and education funds," said Doyle, who wants to use the next few months to explore the possibility of limiting the Voters' Pamphlet to an online-only information source.

Currently the Elections Division prints and mails the publication to 1.6 million households and posts its content on its Web site: www.oregonvotes.org.

Bradbury, a Democrat whose office oversees publication of the Voters' Pamphlet, requested the allocation because the Legislature adjourned without passing his request to pay for printing and mailing costs by doubling the fees paid by candidates and those who submit pro and con arguments for ballot measures.

That proposal became vital for the Voters' Pamphlet's survival, said Bradbury Chief of Staff Paddy McGuire, after the secretary of state chose to absorb budget cuts by diverting general-fund dollars from the Voters' Pamphlet to other elections-related costs.

"In these tough times, we thought having the candidates and arguers pay for what they were getting was a more viable option than using the general fund," McGuire said.

But with that option failing to win the Legislature's approval, Bradbury is now asking the Emergency Board to pay for the Voters' Pamphlet the old-fashioned way: from the general fund.

Senate President and E-Board co-chairman Peter Courtney, D-Salem, said he was hopeful that the panel would approve the funding request for the sake of voters who rely on the publication for the official descriptions of ballot measures, as well as arguments from supporters and opponents and candidates' statements.

"I really want the Voters' Pamphlet for Oregon. And I'd like to think all of us do, to tell you the truth," he said. "I don't think the Voters' Pamphlet is a Democratic or Republican thing - or independent or Libertarian, for that matter."

Still, Courtney said, he worried that for some lawmakers, the Voters' Pamphlet is in jeopardy because of politics.

Bradbury, who unsuccessfully challenged Republican U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith last year, faces his own re-election next year.

He drew scorn from Republicans for redrawing legislative district boundaries in a way that they said favors Democratic candidates.

Courtney said the Republican-controlled House failed to pass Bradbury's Voters' Pamphlet fee bill and threatened to reduce his budget for statewide auditing for two reasons: because of the state's financial woes and because Republicans would like to give his GOP challenger a leg up in next year's election.

"Was it politics or was it the budget crisis? I think it was both," Courtney said. "There were hard feelings for Bill and there were budget problems."

Doyle denied that partisan politics played any role in the Voters' Pamphlet's uncertain fate.

"All I'm looking at is that we have to be very certain that that expense is a higher priority than all the other services and programs that we may ultimately have to cut away if the tax referendum is put in place," the Salem Republican said.